News
Jan 17, 2024
League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena that released way back in 2009. It continues to be one of the most played online games worldwide, and now Riot has teamed up with Graveyard Keeper’s developer to take on a whole new genre: farming sims!
Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is a delightful farming and crafting sim set in the city of Bandle, home of the furry yordles. You play as one of those yordles, a shy one who lives in Yarnville. It’s an isolated little island obsessed with knitting, but 101-year long apprenticeship has come to an end, and you yearn to see what the world has to offer beyond the portals that connect the world. A party you attend goes awry, though, and the portals collapse as a result!
Equipped with your unique knitting magic, you’ll embark on a grand adventure to restore the portals of Bandle Tale! Team up with some of the champions from League of Legends who will help you in your quest. Encounter a variety of curious creatures. Also gather resources to craft some neat items with, and awaken the magical portals. That’s not all, though! You’ll get to throw parties and festivals for the town to entertain your fellow residents. Grow crops, cook tasty dishes, and even build gadgets to delight your guests with.
Will you restore the portals?
Release Date
Bandle Tale is listed on Nintendo Switch, Steam, Epic Games, and GOG. There is no specific release date, but it is expected sometime this year!
- Dec 27, 2023
Thirsting for a city builder and management game that doesn’t involve people? Look no further!
United Penguin Kingdom is exactly that. You’re building a settlement for penguins while satisfying their needs. Build homes, decorate the town, assemble entertainment venues, and produce whatever else your penguin settlers may need. You’ll need to fight off killer whales and thieving seals while you do all of that, too.
This is no low-tech village, either. United Penguin Kingdom makes use of different workplaces to grow food, produce materials, and make medicine for its citizens. Plus, energy generators are necessary for running homes, workplaces, and coolers. When they’re not working or chilling at home, your penguin settlers will enjoy spending time at museums, ice skating rinks, game centers, and so much more. Schools are important for your penguins, too, so make sure there are enough seats for them!
Can you grow your humble settlement from a tiny little village to a whole kingdom?
Release Date
You can find United Penguin Kingdom on Steam. There is no release date available, but you can add it to your Wishlist!
Want more city builders? There’s Gourdlets, a builder with no objectives, just creative freedom. There’s also As Far As The Eye, The Wandering Village, and Dwarrows.
- Dec 20, 2023
I’ve been playing dotAGE quite a bit since I got my hands on it. It’s been an absolute staple in my Steam library. It’s easy to pick up and put down, or so easy to get completely engrossed in and lose the day. If you’re unfamiliar with the game, you can read my previous mention of it here, and I even have a review of it.
Now, there’s a Christmas update! This update gives players a new story to play where Santa is exploiting his elf Pips and needs to reach a certain quota of gifts. It’s your job as the Elder to help Santa reach that quota! Aside form a higher difficulty level, the story has a few things to spice it up and make it different from the rest of dotAGE:
– New resource: Gift!
– Four new buildings!
– A new map with evergreen trees and snow all around!
– A new job: Santa’s Helper!
– A special doom event with a twist!
– A new flow specific to Santa, with a shorter run and custom seasons!
Will you be able to save Christmas?
You can find dotAGE on Steam!
- Nov 15, 2023
Did you ever watch Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away and think to yourself “I’d love to run a bath house for spirits”? What better way to get to interact with the fantastical and wonderful, after all. Well, now’s your chance! Spirittea offers that opportunity. You drank the Spirittea and now can see all of the different spirits that are causing trouble in town. Humans have stopped worshiping and leaving them offerings, so they’ve become lost and purposeless.
Your job in Spirittea is to find those mayhem-causing spirits and help them solve their problems! They’ll only become paying customers of the bathhouse once you’ve helped them. This might involve getting the spirit a bowl of spicy noodles, digging up their long-lost treasure, or some other task. You’re also in charge of running the bathhouse, so you’ll need to keep it running smoothly. Sweep away cobwebs, provide clean towels to customers, collect used towels, and keep things dry and organized. Provide tasty meals for your customers while ensuring their bath water is heated to their preferred temperature. And make sure you plan carefully. Some spirits dislike each other, so sit them apart from each other, while placing friends together for best results!
When you’re not busy running your mountain-side bathhouse, be sure to talk to the townspeople of Spirittea. They each have their own unique personalities and schedules, as well as hobbies. Plus, many run the local shops which will be helpful in decorating your home. The shops can make a variety of furniture to fit your interior decorating tastes. Make your simple house a cozy home fit for you!
Available Now
Spirittea release November 13th, and is now on Steam, Switch, and Xbox!
Japanese Rural Life is another relaxing sim game! Set in the Japanese countryside, you farm, fish, and spend time with your pet.
- Nov 2, 2023
Roots of Pacha is a lovely farming and life sim set in the Stone Age. You and your tribe mates will discover new ideas and inventions, as well as bring those ideas to life. Improve your community as you explore the world. Tame animals, make friends, even get married! And of course, you’ll run your own farm where you plant a variety of crops to use in jams and other recipes.
Now, Roots of Pacha is receiving another fun update that brings more content, and goodies! This update will add a new animal, called the auochs. This cow-like creature will be tameable by playing its own unique song. Move them to a barn on your land and gather fur and milk from them. Plus, they may even play a major role in future game updates!
Roots of Pacha is adding quite a few new additions for NPCs, too. Voda will be romanceable now. You can join her in the woods to visit with the wolves, and more. Plus, there will be new NPC cut scenes, as well as gifts from those NPCs you’ve achieved a high enough friendship level with. Receive 16 new recipes, 10 new hats/masks, 11 furniture pieces, and 2 new accessories. Then there’s unions. Players have wanted to be able to break unions (marriages) for a while now, and now they’ll be able to! So, if you like to marry everyone in a game for completionism, this is your chance!
Then there’s these fun new Roots of Pacha additions:
- Sitting on chairs will restore your stamina
- You can now grow herbs and mushrooms
- Use traps in savanna to get meat, or butcher animals you’ve raised
- The race maps were polished
- Performance optimizations implemented
- Fruit tree costs lowered, plus a new one added that makes animals never get sick
- Fish will have quality levels
- Japanese language added as a playable option
- Cross play will be available with Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox releases.
Finally, and perhaps the most exciting, is that Roots of Pacha is coming to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation November 28th! An Xbox port will come sometime next year. You can also find it on Steam now.
- Oct 25, 2023
Sticky Business is an adorable and vibrant game where you run your very own sticker business. You pick from a variety of design elements to create thousands of fun possibilities. Then, you can add pretty papers and extras to each package as you hand pack them for customers.
And now Sticky Business added some spooky Halloween elements with a recent update! There are now new stickers to choose from like cute ghosts, fun little bats, and pumpkins. Plus, there’s two new packing papers to celebrate the holiday. Throw in matching treats to each box or use the new glitter material for a pop of fun. Pair that with September’s update and this game is getting better and better. That update added more color varieties, better sticker grabbing, and some other general sticker elements. It’s the ultimate cozy design game!
The developers also improved the auto-save feature to automatically backup game files so you can play without any worries.
Available Now
You can find Sticky Business on Steam, GOG, and Itch.io!
You can read more about Sticky Business, and some other Steam Next Fest demos I enjoyed playing here.
- Oct 19, 2023
Sprout Valley is a sweet little farming simulator where you play as Nico, an adorable cat character. Take a step back from your busy life to live a simple life growing the garden of your dreams. Spend your days gathering resources and growing crops. Harvest and sell your crops, and use the resources you find to improve your relaxing island life. Even discover friends and interesting events as you live your life on the island!
Available Now
You can find Sprout Valley on Itch.io, Steam, and Nintendo Switch. And now it’s on Android and iOS so you can play on the go!
Cozy Islands is another cozy mobile game you should check out.
- Oct 18, 2023
We currently have Palia, the cozy MMO with zero combat and a focus on some pretty neat world lore. This was released in open beta in August of this year. Then there’s Loftia, a cute solarpunk cozy MMO whose early access isn’t coming until 2025! Now, there’s another possible cozy MMO to keep an eye on.
WorldShards is a sandbox MMORPG set in a fantasy world. What was once a prosperous world inhabited by cat creatures called meowkle, a terrible catastrophe shattered the land. Then, evil wargs attacked. Now the world is made up of numerous flying islands, and you’ll have to explore these fragments, fight the wargs, and restore the meowkles to their former glory!
You’ll receive the use of your very own flying island to turn into your home base. There, you’ll be able to build a house to suit all of your WorldShards needs. Process resources you gather, access crafting stations to make equipment and weapons, and more. Even recruit a friendly meowkle friend to help you out around the house or in your adventures.
Otherwise, take time to explore a beautiful fantasy world full of stunning vistas. Discover the mysteries and secrets WorldShards has hidden in its islands. Set up a useful teleportation system to generate islands that will be useful to you and your play style. Even solve puzzles and complete quests. Gather various resources during your adventures that can be used in crafting or trading. Also go toe to toe with the evil wargs and their ruthless king to help save the world. Engage in stealth missions or defeat them in dynamic battles that depend on your play style.
Coming Soon
WorldShards is currently being developed, but you can find the roadmap on their website. Early Access is intended for Q3 of this year, with a full release slated for Q3 of 2024! You can find it on Steam and Epic Games to add it to your Wishlist now!
